The stakes were particularly critical for the 1.1 million Americans
living with HIV/AIDS or those at risk of infection -- and those people
are disproportionately Black and low-income.
“Much of this population is uninsured or under-insured,” says C. Virginia Fields, president and CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.. “Thousands more people now have health care -- including many people who are HIV positive.”

The South has become the epicenter of Black America’s HIV epidemic.
More “new AIDS cases were diagnosed among Black men who have sex with
men in the South than in all regions combined,” the Black AIDS Institute
reported in "Back of the Line: The State of AIDS Among Black Gay Men in
America.” Black women account for nearly three-quarters of all new
infections among women in the South.

“Those states have more poverty, larger concentrations of Blacks and
often have Republican-lead state governments,” notes Texas Woman’s
University assistant professor Kimberly A. Parker, Ph.D., M.P.H. “Sex-education and HIV-prevention education are limited. Many states officially promote ‘abstinence’.”

As viral loads continue to be "off the charts" among Black gay and bisexual men, the Centers for Disease Controls has launched a new social-media campaign to reverse the trend. The report analyzes data that show new HIV infections among young Black gay/bi men have increased by almost half. Read HERE.

20 September 2011

As HIV viral loads continue to be "off the charts" among urban and rural networks of Black gay/bi men, the Centers for Disease Controls has launched a new social-marketing campaign to reverse the trend. The report analyzes data that show new HIV infections among young Black gay and bisexual men have increased by almost half. Read HERE. Part Two will drop next week.